Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Pre-Order ACAPULCO NIGHTS Today

Amazon posted my pre-order page for ACAPULCO NIGHTS. You can now use the link below to pre-order the Kindle version of my book:

Pre-order ACAPULCO NIGHTS

The Kindle version will be released on September 22nd. If you have any interest at all in my book, I'd appreciate a pre-order. This helps with the Amazon rankings, if you have a bunch of purchases on one day...and a pre-order would give me that boost.

I am working on a print copy. CreateSpace is pretty new to me, so I don't know if I can schedule a simultaneous release of the print version along with the Kindle version. But I'll do my best. Once I complete the editing of the Kindle version, then I need to work on my print version (which is different formatting). I can't create the full cover until I know the number of pages in the book.

As you can see, a number of things has to take place in order to have the print version ready. However, once I have a print version, I will be doing a giveaway on GoodReads to a few lucky readers. So come back to the blog (or join me on GoodReads) to keep track of that.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

UPDATE: You can now also pre-order a print version of ACAPULCO NIGHTS here:

 Pre-order ACAPULCO NIGHTS in paperback

Please spread the word!

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

ACAPULCO NIGHTS Available for Pre-order Soon

I am here to announce that ACAPULCO NIGHTS, my newest book, will be available for Kindle pre-sale in the next few days. The release date is September 22, 2015. I will post the link to the Amazon page as soon as it is up and running.

Here's the blurb for this new book:

  Suzie's fiancé, James, is pressuring her to pick a day for their wedding. She's cancelled three dates, and he's starting to wonder if she really wants to get married. But how does she go about telling her fiancé that she's already married to a man in Mexico? She needs a divorce, and she needs one fast. Her marriage has been a secret from her best friend, Janice, her fiancé, even her own mother, and she wants to keep it that way.
When Janice asks her to come along on an all-girl vacation to Acapulco, Suzie leaps at the chance. A search on the Internet gives Suzie all the information she needs to track down her husband, Joaquin, while out of the country and finally get that divorce.  
Unfortunately, Joaquin won't give her up so easily.
When James appears in Acapulco unexpectedly, all hell breaks loose, and Suzie stands to lose everything she's ever loved.

This is a bit of a departure from the paranormal suspense stuff I usually write. But it was a book I'd had sitting on my computer for awhile that deserved some love. With the new avenues available to writers for publishing, I thought I'd give it a whirl and see where it goes. I will also be releasing this book in paperback around the same time as the Kindle version (if all goes well).

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that awhile back I'd whipped together a couple of cover ideas and had a poll on my blog. I also had asked some friends and family what they thought of my two covers.

Boy, did I get an earful! Reminder: never do that again! LOL. Seems that people love to tell you what your cover should include, look like, etc. I knew I couldn't make everyone happy and decided to start over. After thinking it through, spending 3 days (complete, full work days) looking through different photo options on royalty-free sites, I narrowed it down to the pic above.

With some help from my spouse, I made some improvements, selected the color font, and finalized the cover yesterday.

I spent some time looking at other novels in a similar vein...mainly Jennifer Weiner...who writes women's fiction. ACAPULCO NIGHTS isn't really romance. It's more just general fiction for women with a relationship in turmoil at its core. Hopefully, my cover inspirations are reflected in my own design.

I look forward to sharing this novel with my readers and hope that I can find some new fans out there!


Monday, August 24, 2015

BLOOD MOON Now Available in Paperback!

My book, BLOOD MOON, is now available for purchase in paperback form through CreateSpace. It will soon be available on Amazon later this week...and other retailers, hopefully over the next couple of months.

I received a proof copy of my book last week, and it turned out so cool! I'm pretty proud of how the cover turned out. Designed on my Mac using Illustrator, a photo I downloaded from a royalty-free site and a wolf I used (with permission) from an artist on DeviantArt.

I now have that proof copy sitting on my bookshelf next to my other two books. This has inspired me to really work hard on getting ACAPULCO NIGHTS out there in Kindle and print form ASAP.

Please spread the word about the print version. This book is intended for high school kids looking to expand their vocabulary before they take the SAT or other college entrance exams. However, it could be useful for anyone wanting to learn some difficult words in a fun way.

The Kindle version is $2.99, and the print version is $8.99. The CreateSpace buy link is below. Will add the Amazon link (and others) as they become available.

Buy BLOOD MOON in paperback!


Friday, August 14, 2015

BLOOD MOON To Be Released In Paperback & ACAPULCO NIGHTS News

Hello, readers!  I know I am usually clogging up my blog with StitchFix reviews, but today I'm actually going to update you on my writing. Exciting stuff!

Let's start off with my young adult book, BLOOD MOON. BLOOD MOON was released as a Kindle-only book in May 2013. I revised it several times and even attempted to sell in e-book format through a distributor in order to get my book on Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and other reseller sites. When I didn't see a lot of activity on other resellers, I went back to Kindle-only in order to be eligible for certain advantages Amazon gives to Kindle-only authors.

I had dreamed of making a print copy available, but all I knew about print was that you typically had to invest a LOT of capital into the process (thousands of dollars). It didn't seem worth it to me, since I never expect a huge audience for my self-published works.

Then, I read a blog the other day that I found on Twitter:

Self-Publishing - It's About Breaking The Rules

It really was just a basic blog post about how self-publishing has shaken up the publishing world by redefining what publishing is...length of book no longer matters, for example. Short stories can be sold one at a time. You can put together a novella of 30,000 words and find an audience (and decent $). Etc.

Anyway, somehow this blog post lead me back to CreateSpace, which is the printing arm of Amazon's self-publishing juggernaut. I wanted to find out what the costs were with printing your books. And I learned something new: you can upload your book for print with ZERO cost (if you can do the work yourself...cover design, document formatting, etc.). The books are printed on demand when ordered. You can even make your printed book available to other retailers through CreateSpace, who supplies your book to distributors.

So after reviewing all of this information, I decided to go ahead and make BLOOD MOON available in print. I have re-formatted the book to fit into a standard trade paperback size and am working right now on creating a full cover (back cover, spine, front cover) in the correct size. BLOOD MOON will be my 'experiment' in print sales. I will give you an update when I find out more about the production process and when my book will be ready for sale!

I am also working on making ACAPULCO NIGHTS available in the Kindle store and in print!  I was only expecting to make this book available through the Kindle store, but now that I have figured out how CreateSpace works, I will also be offering a print version of this book in the fall.

I have already worked on the basic formatting for Kindle, and will be doing another edit to fix what I can before I go to print. This book is in a very different style (first person) than my other books, so the editing becomes a different animal. I am also planning on possibly purchasing a cover for this book, so that I don't have to create both a Kindle and a print version of the cover. It can be time consuming! Although I had a couple of cover ideas, after the survey and listening to friends/family about the two options I provided, I'd like to find an even better cover. I'm not a design master, so it takes me a LONG time to create a decent cover that is of high enough quality for print. We will see!

Wish me luck in the printing experience. I'm learning as I go!